Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix And New Theatrhythm Will Be Playable At Jump Festa

Square Enix announced their lineup for Jump Fest and they’re bringing more than Final Fantasy VI for smartphones. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix will be playable at the show and attendees will be able to fight shadows in Halloween Town from Kingdom Hearts II and the Castle of Dreams from Birth By Sleep. Here’s a look at the demo.

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix

Halloween Town

Beast Castle

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix

Aqua’s Chapter: Radiant Garden

Terra’s Chapter: Enchanted Dominion

Ventus’ Chapter: Castle of Dreams

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca’s Marvelous Mysterious Key for Nintendo 3DS, Dragon Quest VIII for smartphones, and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call for 3DS will be playable. Also, Dragon Quest X, Bravely Default: For the Sequel, and Final Fantasy VI will have videos at the event. Jump Festa takes place on December 21 and 22.

I’m eager to see how much work they’re applying to 2.5. Nomura said they’ll try to polish it up more than they did 1.5, so it should at least be as good as that.

http://momentsreprieve.com/index/ Aushria

Well, the original Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix had a development cycle of eight months, and I would be one to argue that it is the most polished entry in the series.

So you already have one game that is extremely polished, and doesn’t require being remade from the ground up like the original Kingdom Hearts Final Mix did for I.5.

That is turn should give them loads of time to make II.5 be the sexy beast that it should be. Honestly though, I hope they add the things that they removed from the original KHII FM due to time constraints:

Two Extra Drive forms: One that was gold and white and Anti Form (The latter of which can be added to the drive menu with Cheats)

Toy Story Summons: Buzz and Woody were teased but never saw the light of day. (Other than their models being in the game’s data…)

Behemoths in the 1000 heartless fight: The PS3 can handle these with EASE so there is no reason for them not to be re-added.

Pdugna

I would think they would save some of that for KH3 tbh…which sucks but yeah…

Kaitsu

I actually question their “remade from the ground up” for 1.5. During the beginning tutorial, where it tells you to use the X button to attack. the picture of the X button was horribly low quality. Not only that, once you finally get to Destiny Islands, the clouds are also really low quality as well. It looked ridiculous, since I was playing in 1080p.

But, I digress, I do hope they add the things that were removed as well. And if I do recall, they said they were doing more for 2.5 than they did for 1.5?

Rayhan PromisedGallery

don’t forget ton of pixel faces.

I swear KH1 Sora looks more emotionless than nobodies because of his pixel face lack movement

Tiredman

My main gripe with KH2 was the battle system. I didn’t like how they added so much flash to it, and I hated getting stuck in combos, meaning some I couldn’t stop. That particular problem hampered some of my fun with KH 2 and almost completely ruined my Star Ocean 4 fun.

Steven Higgins

But Anti-Form, though random, was in the original game and FM so it’s not really extra. As for the Gold/White one, are you sure that’s wasn’t just a concept of Final Form?

negineBIT

Imho, BBS has the best battle mechanics (command melding woot~!) in KH series. Can’t wait for it to be HDed. Along with KH2 of course :>

Tiredman

Only played KH 1 and 2 myself, so looking forward to it, and playing the handheld one on KH 1.5 as well. KH 2 should be a very pretty game in HD, as it was already a show on ps2.

negineBIT

Really? You’re going to have so much fun in BBS. There are 3 playable characters in BBS which are Terra, Ventus and Aqua. As Nomura stated, it is recommended to play Terra > Ven > Aqua so that the story will much more make sense.

You’ll get to see different perspectives in the story. Also, the three have different abilities and specialties.

I love playing as Aqua to bits. She’s weak at first, and suddenly with all of the melding commands thingy, BAM!! She’s one of the perfect Keyblade warriors out there. ( I hope I’m not that biased XD)

Tiredman

=p nah, people that actually like games are usually the best ones to give people opinions on it. I have played many “crap” games over the years and loved them, even enjoyed the new Duke Nukem, so I know that all these games that are getting panned, most of them do have a good many redeeming qualities you don’t hear about unless its from a fan of the game.

Not saying BBS was a game that got panned, just explaining my view on fans of games versus critics of games.

negineBIT

Actually, reviews from others means a little to me unless I experienced it myself. Heck, I really enjoy several games that are made in RPG Maker which are critics-free :D

Tiredman

Yep, I am a Zeboyd fan, well, was, seems he decided to focus all out pc and ps4 now, and I am going to be a Wii U owner for at least the next year.

Sardorim

When everyone’s maxed out Aqua is just so ridiculously broken compared to the other two. That’s not even factoring in that her cartwheels do damage and make her damage immune.

Ronldbx6

If you are from America, you could have still played Chain of Memories since they remade it for PS2. I missed Chain of Memories back in the day to too because I didn’t have a gameboy but I eventually picked up Re:Chain of Memories for PS2. KH2 made so much more since then. Have fun playing Birth by Sleep for the first time. I’ve already played it but it’ll be the final mix version too so I’m excited. Also never played KH2 Final Mix, can’t wait!

Tiredman

I own it actually, but I bought it after I retired my ps2, even though it is still hooked up =x, so I haven’t gotten around to actually playing it. My backlog of must play ps3/xbox 360/Wii games is just too big.

InfernoCommander

I’m really hoping they make the multiplayer in BBS online multiplayer

negineBIT

I’l go asdfghjkl if the team add new online features in Mirage Arena for BBS XD

Seven of The Scions

Ah great i just remembered that they have online features!!!
most be optimized for consoles since the PSP version has too much frame drop, yihaaaaa!!!

more powerful bosses please Square-Enix :)

Bobby Jennings

Bring back the capes you guys said you couldn’t put on the PSP!

Steven Higgins

That was all Edna Mode’s idea, I swear. Her and her “NO CAPES!” rule

Steven Higgins

Well, I know they said that II.5 will be “even more polished than I.5″. Weather that means the integration of new features or not is unclear.

Sardorim

HD Aqua.

I don’t think I’m ready for her cartwheels….

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kevassa02 kevassa

I loved BBS combat for random mobs and all the variable combos you can do. Shotlock and command styles were nice too.
But the way actual combo hitsun worked was incredibly stupid. It encouraged to camp, shotlock, use i-frame commands and/or spam the dodge action to beat a lot of bosses. Or simply Ignite them when they arent immune to it.

I also dont get why we didnt get Air Recovery until the Final Mix… Without it enemies had a super easy time comboing you in the air.

On that regard KH2′s combo mechanics were much more consistant, but the system offered less options (sometimes devolving into a button masher).
If they got BBS flexible commands with KH2 polished mechanics and more movement tools it’d be my favorite KH game. :)

Keytotruth

I have to agree with you on all that. On BbS you should at least get some abilities that modify your basic attacks combos to give it some variety, and also they should just remove the cooldown time between commands like they did in Re:Coded where you could chain regular attacks and commands. The battle mechanics would become so much more flexible if they did that, but it’s not going to happen. xD

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kevassa02 kevassa

You are the first person I’ve seen that comments on Re:Coded! :D Actually, I loved that game’s fun factor!
It didn’t have all the perks from BBS (no Shotlock or D-Drive :( and clock levels arent as cool as command styles) but whatever it copied, it copied it pretty damn right.

It helps Re:Coded is so very replayable and arcade-like, with a lot of focus on scoring, replaying episodes to find goodies and speedrunning. While I think there’s a lot to work from there, I definitely enjoyed Re:Coded’s bosses more than BBS (but enjoyed BBS as a whole more than Re:Coded).
Kind of a shame it’s only cutscenes for it when the gameplay was where it was at (the story was completely stupid and borderline unnecessary, bars the final chapter).

Derp that was long.
But yeah it’d be nice if they improved BBS in little ways. Balance commands, better combo mechanics and less dodge reliance and I’ll be totally in!
They could even add a “original balance” option, for those who just want to play like the PSP version.

Göran Isacson

Looking back on BBS, it really DOES have a lot of cheap work-arounds that makes spamming commands and then dodging around until the cool-down is over and you can spam commands again the major strategy.

Funny thing is that to me, KH2 was essentially mostly about mashing buttons as well but for some reason I didn’t have as much fun with that game as I did with BBS. I think it’s just the variety that does the trick: in KH2 I essentially hammer the attack button and do the combo, over and over again. Whereas in BBS I (at least until I figure out which commands are REALLY overpowered) have a vast selection of commands and shot-locks to choose from. It kinda felt like they were all equally overpowered, so I could vary my fights a bit more than KH2… even if both games essentially became a bit mashy at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kevassa02 kevassa

Yep exactly how I felt actually. KH2 lacked variety. Everything was very streamlined. However there was certain logic in general when a combo would break and what comoed into what. BBS brought to the table what KH2 lacked, but sacrificed finesse and balance to reach that goal.

I love the variety of commands in BBS, specially the flashier spells you wouldn’t ever have a chance to use in KH1 or 2 (Meteor, Holy/Faith, Salvation, Megaflare, etc lots of which were in CoM, actually). I’d squeel they got the technical mechanics worked around for KH3 like proper hitstun, proper command cancel flow (tiered commands? level 1->2->3 or something?), more movement tools for evasion other than “spam square, be invincible!” (like a backstep, sidestep, step through, etc) and some new approach options (thinking of Aiming Step in Tales where you dash homing into the enemy).

Göran Isacson

Funny thing is that I was one of the few it seems who played the original Chain of Memories and actually liked it: now it’s been AGES so I can’t really swear that there’s not anything annoying about it’s combat mechanics, but I actually dug having to create a limited set of attacks as it felt like you really had to think ahead and build a deck that could be used in a lot of situations, or figure out a boss weaknesses and configure your deck after that. Not to mention the variety of attacks and spells you had, the selection in KH2 just felt so lackluster in comparison.

Still, I can’t deny KH2 did have a lot of flow, and some of the things it did like magic combos and Drive Forms altering one’s combo-attacks were neat. But alas, so overpowered.

The thing is though that I know several fans of the franchise who aren’t really gamers to the degree that I am, and they enjoy KH2 the most precisely because it’s so simplistic. They are people who may buy BBS DDD and such but will usually just play it on easy and hit up the secret movies on Youtube because stuff like hitstun and command flow and evasion beyond AQUA CARTHWHEEL FORCE and so on isn’t really in their wheelhouse. It puts the franchise in a weird place where I’m not sure they can really do a game that will satisfy EVERYONE’S cravings. Like, make it too deep and have the gamers rejoice, but the fans who come for the story and for Disney characters might think it’s too harsh. Make it too easy and the experienced gamers will roll their eyes and go “welp back to mashing triangle I guess”.

Kinda makes one wonder how they could change their controls to best suit players. Maybe insert a “power wheel” like in Mass Effect or Ratchet and Clank where you press a shoulder button and bring up a wheel of elements, and then you select between fire, ice, thunder, gravity element etc and then the command list either changes into just those attacks, or you hold down the command button to charge spells from Fire-> Fira-> Firaga … and if you hold down the attack button and release you charge up special attacks like Strike Raid -> Sonic Blade -> Ragnarok style attacks, all imbued with the element you’ve chosen from the wheel.

Though that might make it a bit TOO action-y…. and now that they’re throwing in the ability to change your Keyblade into different shapes, who even KNOWS what they’re going to do with the controls and how that will effect things. Will it be another meter you have to fill in in order to transform your Keyblade, and will there only be one transformation per Keyblade? Will there be a whole list of forms that every Keyblade will be able to turn into, and you just gradually aquire the new forms like regular weapons? So many questions…

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kevassa02 kevassa

I completely agree its tough to do a simple yet deep game, however it’s far from an impossibiliy.

I think that a deep enviroment doesn’t detract from the experience of a gamer just there for the story. Mind you, a lot of times enviroment (physics, hitstun, movement tools, technical options, combo logic) is completely transparent for a newbie. Look at Pokemon. It’s got a HUUUUGE metagame, not only for battling but breeding and moveset strategy. However, everyone can enjoy it on a simplistic level.

So, my hunch isn’t that BBS’s and CoM’s number of options overwhelm people but a lot of other contextual things.
KH2 is an excellent game for newbies because everything is SO streamlined. You get almost everything automatically by levelling up or extra bonuses (automatically gained in boss fights). Your tools are given to you periodically and only working with the plot-mandatory stuff you have a huge asset of (broken) things.

On the other hand CoM demands deck building and choosing what to level up per level (I looove this aspect, mind you, but I can see why it’s a deal for newbies). You need to go out of your way to get decent, unlike KH2. You also need to go to Moogle Shops constantly and have luck to get the cards / sleights you want. It also has two characters with different playstyle and they dont carry over progress to the other, which may be a letdown for some (though Riku is muuuuuuuuch simpler than Sora).

BBS shares similar problems but much much much more augmented. Making everything customizable, levellable and meldable makes it VERY easy for someone to get lost in the foilage of options. It doesn’t help Command Melding is the only way to learn Abilities and they never explain how it works. It definitely doesnt help that you have THREE characters as opposed to one or two and they never explain very well the unique aspects of each.

What I mean is, making a proper enviroment more experienced player can enjoy isn’t necessary conducive to rising the entry barrier.

Long rant, I know :)

Altumn

I actually hated the battle mechanics, just something about them annoyed me. BUT, BBS Had some of my favorite worlds and songs!

http://gamgambit.tumblr.com/ Thespian Thief ♢

Daamn agreed!
I liked it muuch better than the MP system the main entries have.

I really hope they tone down that stupid Ice Cream mandatory mini-game in Ventus’s story in BBS. I raged so hard over that because the requirements for completing it, and advancing the story, was extremely high.

negineBIT

For me it’s Fruitball D:

Ronldbx6

Omg, not looking forward to playing Fruitball again.

Virevolte

You’ve just summon some of my worst memories…

Ronldbx6

lol :) pain in the posterior.

Arcana Wiz

….. i liked it, but i love rhythm games.

OathkeeperSoraXIII

Was I the only one that didn’t have a problem with this? xD

Byron Kerrison II

I don’t remember it being too difficult…

I had trouble with Mysterious Figure on Proud mode and that’s about it.

OathkeeperSoraXIII

Wait til you get to face No Heart in the Mirage Arena ;). Which reminds me actually…Will multiplayer be coming back for BBS…Because I don’t want to solo No Heart…It was hard enough with a buddy helping me.